


Blooming, Lovely

by thingswithwings



Category: The Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: Best Friends, Chromatic Character, Coming Out, Gen, Queer Gen, Queer Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-17
Updated: 2011-04-17
Packaged: 2017-10-24 02:46:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/258058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thingswithwings/pseuds/thingswithwings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>just a little piece of Rani and Clyde sweetness, for the Family challenge at <a href="http://queerlygen.dreamwidth.org/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://queerlygen.dreamwidth.org/"><b>queerlygen</b></a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blooming, Lovely

  
Clyde won't call it a sleepover, and it's much more heavily supervised than any sleepover Rani's ever had with a girlfriend (if her mum comes in with snacks or juice or recovered pieces for their old Cluedo game _one more time_ , Rani might lose it), but a sleepover is exactly what it is. It's nice, actually, to spend quiet time with Clyde when they're not saving the world from Slytheen or reinstating a lost heir to his alien kingdom or preventing the assassination of Queen Jane.

Although Rani quite liked Queen Jane, actually.

They're supposed to be studying for their biology exam tomorrow, but at this point, while their books are still open on the floor, they're of more use as slightly pokey cushions than as sources of information. Clyde flips half-heartedly through the chapter on the human digestive system.

"So, how d'you suppose all those aliens evolved like that? I mean, the ones who eat fear or chaos or whatever. Do they even have large intestines?"

Rani shrugs and applies a smooth coat of clear polish to a fingernail. "Dunno. Suppose you'd have to ask Sarah Jane, or the Doctor, or someone. I'm sure Mr Smith has diagrams. Maybe you can dissect the Trickster for your final project." She lifts her hand up and gives her work a critical eye, then blows softly on her fingertips.

"Ha ha." Clyde frowns down at Figure 3.2, The Tongue. "I just wonder, though. What does chaos taste like? How do you swallow an emotion?"

"Yeah, there's rather a lot missing from our textbooks, isn't there."

Clyde wiggles his eyebrows. "More things in heaven and earth," he intones. Rani rolls her eyes and opens her mouth make fun of him, but just then the door to Rani's room, already propped open with a laundry basket, is pushed a little wider, and Rani's mum steps in.

"Oh, hullo you two!" She exclaims, as if she's pleasantly surprised to find them, right where she left them fifteen minutes ago. She walks into the space between them and kneels down on the floor. "Do you know, I was just going through some old junk and I came across these. Thought you'd get a giggle out of it."

Rani's view is kind of obscured by her mum's leg, so it takes her a minute to figure out that the object in Gita's hands is – is a –

"Oooooh, a photo album!" Clyde grins widely, like he can't believe his good luck. Rani buries her head in her hands.

"Mum," she complains, not looking up, "do you have to?"

"Oh, come on, darling, surely you're not still embarrassed by snapshots of you with birthday cake in your hair and such."

"Yeah," Clyde agrees. "Surely."

With that, Rani's mum smacks her hands on her thighs, levers herself up, and leaves the room, making sure to give the laundry basket a little nudge as she passes, just to make sure the door's going to stay open.

The album is in fact full of pictures of Rani with birthday cake in her hair and such. Clyde cackles over them for a while.

"Aw, you were a cute kid, though," he says, eventually, probably just to pacify her.

She looks down at the pictures and frowns. "It took me a while to grow into my nose."

Clyde flips a page to find a picture of Rani on a swingset, wearing a bright yellow sundress, being pushed by a much younger looking Haresh. She's laughing, her hair flying around wildly. Her dad looks happy, too. "Nah, you were always adorable."

She gives him half a smile. "I like that one." He nods.

"I miss that age. Everything's so big, everything's an adventure." He touches the photo, his finger brushing the edge of the swingset.

She bumps him with her shoulder. "What are you talking about?" she demands. "Alien spaceships and time travel and all isn't adventure enough for you? Should I tell Sarah Jane you're getting bored?"

To her surprise, he doesn't laugh with her, just shrugs. "Dunno. It's different, I guess." He looks up from the picture and smiles. "But, you know, back then I didn't have anyone to share things with. When I was a kid, I mean. I always wished I had a big brother or sister to play with me and take me places. My mum never let me go anywhere on my own."

"I always wished I had a little brother or sister to boss around," she laughs. He grins, meeting her eyes.

They're quiet for a minute, so of course Gita chooses that minute to barge back in.

"How's the studying going, then?" she asks cheerfully.

Rani groans. "I don't think I can get any more of this into my head," she says, pounding her forehead against the textbook.

"Did you two want to turn in? Because, Clyde, I've made up a bed for you in the guest room."

"Thanks, Mrs. Chandra."

"Mum," Rani intones, "I think we just want to chat for a while, all right?"

"Of course, my darlings! Don't let me interrupt. I'm not even here."

When she's gone down the hall, Clyde and Rani both break out into helpless laughter.

"I love your mum, I really do," Clyde says.

Rani snorts, and then, on impulse, grabs Clyde's left hand, bringing it in to where she can hold it steady while she readies to attack it with her nail polish brush.

"Oi!" Clyde pulls back. "This is not a sleepover, and you are not painting my nails."

"Oh, come on, Clyde, let me. I haven't even got any girlfriends to do this with." Clyde glares at her. "I'll remove it tomorrow, promise." She gives him a plaintive look, and he sighs deeply and surrenders his hand.

"Just don't tell Luke. I'd never hear the end of it."

"What makes you think I've never painted Luke's nails?"

Clyde shuts up at that, and watches in silence as Rani applies the matte black polish.

"Bit emo, isn't it?"

"Hush."

She paints in silence for a little while as Clyde watches.

"So I suppose your mum thinks we're going to get up to something untoward if we're left alone too long," he says. It sounds like a joke, except Clyde's throat is tight, choking off his voice, the way it gets when he's nervous.

"Not bloody likely," Rani mutters, before she can think better of it. Then she glances up and sees the surprise on his face. "Oh, I don't – Clyde – "

"No, no, it's fine." His voice sounds less choked off now, like something's eased up. "I'm not – I don't – it's not that – "

"It's okay," Rani laughs. "I know what you mean." She doesn't, really, but she lets it go. They've had this weird thing between them for a while, and she hopes that Clyde isn't misreading her. That she isn't misreading Clyde.

There's another long pause, during which Rani thinks about all the things she could say, all the things she wants to tell Clyde, who is after all her fellow adventurer and little brother and best friend in the whole world. The whole universe, even. All of space and time. She knows that somewhere inside of her is the perfect speech, elegant and articulate like one of Sarah Jane's articles, facts in order as if they were professionally arranged by Luke or Mr Smith.

She swallows around a lump in her throat, then feels herself begin to speak.

"I kind of fancy Sarah Jane," she says, and it's pretty far from what she meant to say. Her hand shakes and smears a line of black down to Clyde's knuckle.

If he's surprised, he covers it well, not even looking up from his hand. "Hey, now, you're smudging it."

She half-smiles at him, even though she feels like she's going to throw up, and wipes his finger clean with a tissue.

"It's hard not to fancy Sarah Jane, though, isn't it," he says, glancing up at her briefly and then down again. "She's amazing."

"No, but, Clyde, I mean – " she's frustrated now, scared, but determined to make herself clear.

He stops her with a raised hand. "I know," he says. And then, slowly, he leans in to press a soft kiss to her cheek. "I know." His breath is hot on her skin. He's completely still, not fidgeting at all, which is so unusual for Clyde that it almost worries her for a moment. "I kind of, um. I kind of think I fancy your dad, sometimes," he whispers.

That's surprising enough to startle her back into making eye contact. "Clyde!" she almost yells, half-pushing him away. "Don't tell me those things!" Then she sees his eyes narrow a bit, and she backtracks: "I mean, of course you should tell me those things, it's fine, it's just, it's my dad, so – don't tell me those things, yeah?"

"Okay."

"But you should definitely tell me those things."

He grins. "Okay."

She can feel him relaxing next to her, and she smiles to herself.

"Sarah Jane, eh?" Clyde pokes her in the shoulder, and she feels her cheeks heat. "Who else?"

She glares at him. "You first."

That takes the wind out of his sails, but only for a moment, only until his Langer stubborness kicks in and his chin comes up. "I guess that Lord Marchwood was all right," he says.

"A ghost? Talk about unattainable."

Clyde spreads his hands in mock defeat. "He was a bit old for me, yeah, I admit it."

"It must've been the lace collar, yeah?"

"I'm helpless before a lace collar, Rani."

Rani grins. She licks her lips, glancing down at the textbook on the floor. "I sometimes have trouble paying attention in biology class," she confides.

Clyde wiggles his eyebrows at her, and it's so goofily and completely _Clyde_ that the last of her apprehension vanishes. "Miss Jerome? I can see it. And at least she's not two hundred."

"Yeah, to think that for most kids, a crush on a teacher is the most out there thing they can imagine. For us it's practically normal by comparison."

"Exactly. At least Miss Jerome is human. Unlike, um," he stutters, "certain Time Lords who just waltz in and out with new faces on all the time." Clyde looks at her from under his lashes, gaining confidence. She smiles easily. Fellow adventurer, little brother, best friend, and something else, now, too.

"Oh, well, I'm sure you're not the first bloke to fall head over heels for the Doctor. All that dashing about and saving people and wearing tweed."

"The hair! The rakishness! It's ridiculous," Clyde complains.

"At least you're not looking twice at evil army Colonels who want to destroy the universe."

Clyde's shocked into a laugh. "Colonel _Kareem_? Ooooh, kinky. Was it the little beret that did it? The relentless will to power?"

She slaps at his chest. "Shut up, like you even know what kinky means."

"Well, I'm not the one dealing with an attraction to older ladies in the military," he says, using his most reasonable tone.

"I guess you're not," Rani says, slowly. She grins at him, the kind of grin he usually gives her, and then, on impulse, she leans in to press a return kiss to his cheek, soft and easy.

Clyde smiles, glancing down at his hands. "Guess I'd better, uh, get myself off to the guest room, then, eh? If you're all done gussying me up."

"Off you go. We wouldn't want my mum to think we'd got up to anything untoward."

"Course not," Clyde agrees, and winks at her as he bundles his things together and heads for the hallway, where he pauses to perform a deep bow. "I'm nothing if not a gentleman."

She throws a bunched up piece of paper at him, and he laughs and turns to run as it bounces off his back.

"Goodnight, Rani," he calls.

"Goodnight, Clyde."

The guest room is just down the hall; if she's quiet enough, she'll hear him snoring.


End file.
